V Magazine Cover #1: Lady Gaga in Saint Laurent

The first of four covers to be precise. And the last five black Saint Laurent looks were Gaga’s personal homage to the first cover look: custom Saint Laurent cropped sequin tuxedo jacket and raw denim skinnies.

In the “Gaga Strikes Back” story, she speaks about the force that is ARTPOP: “I thought about Pop Art and how the dominant subject matter was always the celebrity or the pop-culture icon on the canvas, and then I thought to myself, But what I have tried endlessly to become through my work is a celebration of my differences through art, with myself as the canvas, as opposed to me as the subject matter, being put on the canvas. I don’t want to be an icon in just one form. I want to be an icon in many forms. So that’s where it began”.

Gaga was photographed by Inez and Vinoodh and styled by Brandon Maxwell. Makeup and hair, Yadim and Shay Ashual respectively.